OECD Health Care Quality Reviews seek to examine what works and what does not work in different countries – both to benchmark the efforts of countries and to provide advice on reforms to improve their health system.

Today, Europeans enjoy a much longer life expectancy than the previous generation, but large inequalities in health remain across and within countries. These are largely due to disparities in access to and quality of care, as well as individual lifestyles and behaviours, according to a new joint OECD/European Commission report.

Within the OECD, most of the work on health is carried out by the Health Division of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. Our mission – advising policy makers and informing public and private stakeholders and citizens on how to address demands for more and better quality health care – is particularly important with public budgets under strain. We develop reliable statistics of health system performance and help countries benchmark their policies against high-performing health systems.